Written Answers Tuesday 28 July 2009

Scottish Executive

Alcohol Misuse

Robert Brown (Glasgow) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it has provided to support action on alcohol issues in each of the last three years, broken down by recipient group.

Shona Robison: Scottish Government spend for alcohol misuse in the last three years was as follows:

  2006-07 - £12.07 million

  2007-08 - £12.4 million

  2008-09 - £28.9 million

  The majority of funding from the Scottish Government is directed via NHS boards for provision of alcohol treatment and support services. Decisions on spend are made locally by Alcohol and Drugs Partnerships. The following table provides funding allocations for treatment and support services, made over the last three years to NHS boards.

  

 NHS Board
 2006-07
 2007-08
 2008-09


 Argyll and Clyde
 915,000
 N/A
 N/A


 Ayrshire and Arran
 706,000
 722,238
 1,775,085


 Borders
 280,000
 286,440
 700,915


 Dumfries and Galloway
 359,000
 367,257
 897,971


 Fife
 659,000
 674,157
 1,636,844


 Forth Valley
 488,000
 499,224
 1,275,324


 Grampian
 699,000
 715,077
 2,014,386


 Greater Glasgow and Clyde
 2,190,000
 2,964,588
 6,325,293


 Highland
 466,000
 688,546
 1,496,320


 Lanarkshire
 814,000
 832,722
 2,455,698


 Lothian
 1,107,000
 1,132,461
 3,401,218


 Orkney
 221,000
 226,083
 333,164


 Shetland
 221,000
 226,083
 345,022


 Tayside
 556,000
 568,788
 1,816,885


 Western Isles
 221,000
 226,083
 390,621


 Total Scotland
 9,902,000
 10,129,747
 24,864,746



  The remainder funds a wide range of complementary activities including a national Alcohol Brief Interventions training package for NHS staff; initiatives like Choices for Life for P7 children; health behaviour change campaign work, including Alcohol Awareness Week; research projects and funding for bodies like Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) and the Scottish Association of Alcohol and Drug Action Teams (SAADAT).

Health

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans there are to evaluate the impact of direct payments on the lives of people with learning disabilities and others who access social care services.

Shona Robison: The evaluation of the Scottish Government self-directed support test sites will investigate the impact of direct payments on the lives of all client groups. Some of the test sites have a particular focus of people with learning disabilities.

Health

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how it views the relationship between direct payments and self-directed support in the provision of social care services.

Shona Robison: Direct payments from local authority budgets usually form the main component of an individual’s complete self-directed support package. Self-directed support encompasses direct payments as well as the other funding streams that an individual may be eligible for, such as disability living allowance or the independent living fund.

Health

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what role direct payments have in the development of self-directed support in the provision of social care.

Shona Robison: Direct payments will continue to be a choice for individuals eligible for social support and the Scottish Government is working to increase the uptake nationally.

Health

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what encouragement is being given to local authorities, NHS boards and other social care providers to move towards self-directed support.

Shona Robison: The Scottish Government is funding a project hosted by NHS Lothian that is investigating the use of health monies in self-directed support (SDS) packages, the learning from this will be shared across all health boards.

  CoSLA is represented on the SDS reference group that I have established. Officials have contacted all local authorities and a number of organisations, including service providers, requesting to meet to discuss local obstacles to uptake, the national strategy and possible legislation.

Health

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how it views the relationship between the draft national standard eligibility criteria and waiting times guidance and the move towards self-directed support.

Shona Robison: The Scottish Government is committed to all individuals with an assessed social care need accessing a direct payment, if the individual chooses. The eligibility criteria does not impact on this.

Health

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take if local authorities fail to deliver on the timescales set out in the draft national standard eligibility criteria and waiting times guidance and whether consideration will be given to legislative change.

Shona Robison: The draft guidance has been jointly agreed by the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA). Local authorities will be asked to confirm by 1 December 2009 that their local arrangements for access to social care services and timescales for access to personal and nursing care services are compatible with the national definitions and standards set out in the finalised guidance. Joint arrangements will be established for the ongoing monitoring of the operation of the eligibility criteria, and waiting times, as monitoring information becomes available.

  The Scottish Government will continue to work in partnership with CoSLA to ensure a transparent and consistent approach across Scotland for older people to access appropriate services.

Life Expectancy

Gavin Brown (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the 10 local authority (a) areas and (b) wards with the (i) highest and (ii) lowest life expectancies in (A) 2005-06, (B) 2006-07 and (C) 2007-08.

John Swinney: The General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) publishes each year life expectancy figures for local authority areas. These figures are based on data for a period of three consecutive years to provide large enough numbers to ensure accuracy. The most recent publication is for 2005-07. Figures for 2006-08 are due to be published in September.

  The 2005-07 publication is on the GROS website, at:

  http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/publications-and-data/life-expectancy/life-expectancy-for-administrative-areas-within-scotland-2005-2007/index.html.

  Data for 2004-06 can be found at:

  http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/publications-and-data/life-expectancy/life-expectancy-for-administrative-areas-2004-2006/index.html.

  Life expectancy at birth for each local authority area is given in tables 1, 2 and 3, for all persons, males and females respectively, together with the ranking of each local authority area.

  GROS does not currently produce life expectancy figures for wards.

Local Government Finance

Jackson Carlaw (West of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of council tax receipts is allocated to contributing to the pensions of local authority staff, also broken down by local authority.

John Swinney: It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financial resources available to it, including council tax receipts, on the basis of local needs and priorities having first fulfilled its statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities including the Scottish Government’s key strategic objectives. For its part, the Scottish Government is providing local government in Scotland with record levels of funding, £23 billion over the period 2008-10.

Local Government Finance

Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers it desirable that local authorities publish their budgets on a consistent basis.

John Swinney: The Scottish Government issues regular guidance to local authorities in Scotland encouraging councils to adopt a broad consistency of practice and a minimum standard of content in the publication of their financial information for general use. However, local authorities have discretion, within the guidance, as to the format in which this information is published.

Local Government Finance

Ms Wendy Alexander (Paisley North) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers it desirable that local authorities publish real-terms data in the same way that it does as part of its budget documentation and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

John Swinney: The Scottish Government issues regular guidance to local authorities in Scotland to ensure Councils adopt a broad consistency of practice and a minimum standard of content for the production of financial information for general use. However, local authorities have discretion, within the guidance, as to the format in which this information is published and there is no set requirement for local authorities to publish information in real-terms.